By SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
The memorialization of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a martyr is sparking backlash among Black clergy across the nation. While tens of thousands gathered in Arizona last weekend for a faith-tinged memorial service attended by former President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Black pastors used their pulpits to condemn attempts to elevate Kirk alongside civil rights icons.
“How you die does not redeem how you lived,” said Rev. Howard-John Wesley of Alexandria, Virginia, in a sermon viewed tens of thousands of times online.
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on a Utah college campus in September. His death, captured in a viral video, has become another flashpoint in America’s racial and political divides.
Clergy Push Back
Pastors in Black churches stressed that Kirk’s rhetoric — which included denigrating Black people, immigrants, women, Muslims, and LGBTQ+ people — cannot be erased by his violent death.
“How dare you compare him to Martin Luther King,” said Rev. Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia. “The only thing they got in common is both of ‘em was killed by a white man. After that, they got nothin’ else in common.”
Rev. F. Bruce Williams of Louisville called it “tragic” to frame Kirk as a martyr of the faith: “He did not die for the Jesus I know.”
Others, like Rev. Freddy Haynes III of Dallas, added: “Kirk should still be alive. But what he said was dangerous, racist, and rooted in white supremacy.”
A Divided Legacy
While many condemned Kirk’s views, some conservative Black pastors, such as Patrick L. Wooden Sr. of Raleigh, N.C., praised him for defending traditional values and opposing liberal policies.
For many others, however, the push to equate Kirk with King highlights a deeper struggle: resisting the use of Christianity to sanctify racism and political extremism.